The present invention relates to a computer-implemented method and apparatus for managing communications to and/or from a user over multiple media.
Today there are many different, commercially available devices that enable people to communicate with each other electronically. In addition to the ubiquitous telephone that has been around for decades, there now are cordless phones for the home, mobile phones for the car, handheld wireless phones which fit into a person's jacket pocket, pagers, local and wide area computer networks, and facsimile machines, to name a few. Undoubtedly, the number and type of devices and their sophistication will continue to increase over time. Indeed, it is likely that a day will soon arrive when it will be possible for everybody to conveniently and inexpensively be within arms reach of some communication device that enables them to communicate electronically with other people.
The proliferation of different types of communication devices and the increasing diversity of communications media present new challenges. How will communications among the different devices and over the different communications media be coordinated and managed so that people have truly effective access to each other? One challenge is associated with communicating information between and across different communications media. Another challenge is related to handling the inevitable increase in the number of calls so as to maintain accessibility of users. For example, as more people come to rely on their wireless phones to transact business while on the road or away from their offices, their phones are likely to be busy a larger percentage of the time. As a consequence, although a wireless phone can go anywhere with its owner, to the people trying to reach that owner when the phone is in use, the owner will still seem to be as inaccessible as when he did not carry a wireless phone. In addition, the more the owner of such a device uses it, the more likely it will be that he will not know that somebody else was trying to reach him and thus he may miss important calls.
An obvious advantage of many of the new commercially available communications devices is that they offer the possibility of greater mobility to the user. Unfortunately, however, it is not always having to be near the office telephone that ties a business person to the office. The office provides other services that are also important and may not be so mobile. Thus, to fully realize the greater mobility that is offered by the new communications devices and media, these new technologies must be provided in a way that takes into account the business person's dependance on other services besides communications.